El desierto es mi madre - The Desert is My Mother, Del Sol Books

Author : Pat Mora, Illustrator : Daniel Lechon
Preschool - 2nd Grade

El desierto es mi madre - The Desert is my Mother

El desierto es mi madre - The Desert is My Mother, Softcover, Bilingual, Book, Pat Mora, Daniel Lechon, Preschool - 2nd Grade, 9780981568621, $7.95
El desierto es mi madre - The Desert is My Mother, Hardcover, Bilingual, Book, Pat Mora, Daniel Lechon, Preschool - 2nd Grade, 9781558851214, $15.95

Skipping Stones Honor Award

The desert is seen through the poetic eyes of a young girl, who recognizes the friendly and nurturing qualities it holds. (K-4).

The first bilingual picture book published under the Pinata Books imprint in 1994, The Desert Is My Mother introduces the partnership of an award-winning poet and a prize-winning painter to create a beautiful poetic and artistic rendition of the relationship between people and nature. Rather than being an expanse empty of life and value, the desert is lovingly presented as the provider of comfort, food, spirit and life.

Vienna Rose Listen to Vienna Rose read The Desert is My Mother to you. A marvelous example of the magical encounter between a child and books that we wish for all children. And here's an earlier reading by Vienna Rose.

Publishers Weekly : With the simplest of words, Mora (Listen to the Desert/Oye al desierto) invokes the grand powers of the desert. A girl with long, dark hair narrates: "I say feed me. She serves red prickly pear on a spiked cactus.... I say frighten me. She shouts thunder, flashes lightning." To underscore the dream-like quality of the narrator's thoughts about the desert, Lechon places the girl alternately outside or partially within the frames of paintings that float on a desert-like textured background. However, he seems capable of endowing her with only saccharine expressions, and her facial features change drastically from one spread to the next. His trite characterizations suppress the beauty of Mora's bilingual text, which, especially in Spanish, communicates quiet joy and reverence. Ages 3-7.

Booklist : Ages 4-8. With a playful, poetic text, this bilingual picture book celebrates a child's connection with her desert home. "I say feed me. / She serves red prickly pear on a spiked cactus." On each double-page spread the child makes a demand, and the pictures show how the desert satisfies her. The feelings are universal; the words are precise and physical. ("I say make me beautiful. / She offers turquoise for my fingers, a pink blossom for my hair"). There's some wry humor ("I say tease me"), and always there's the unexpected ("I say frighten me"). The illustrations extend the imagery to show a dreamy child with long, black hair: she watches the scary lightning storm in the desert night; she sees the particular flowers that bloom in the sun's glare and in the driest sand. This child is fostered by the joy and awe of lonely places.

Midwest Book Review : The Desert is My Mother deserves favorable mention as an excellent bilingual story of a young girl who celebrates the seasons of the nurturing desert. Striking color illustrations marks her reflections on desert life.

Bilingual Collection Blue Books :